BEST OF BREED

Some 80 years ago, a German dogcatcher named Louis Dobermann determined to breed a new strain of dog that would combine the agility of a terrier, the strength of a shepherd and the grace of a greyhound. Assisted by two friends, a gravedigger and a bell ringer, Dobermann interbred pinschers, shepherds, rottweilers and black and tan terriers, to get an intelligent, powerful new breed that won distinction as a war dog in both World Wars and as a "seeing eye" for the blind.

This week a sleek, three-year-old descendant of "Dobermann's dogs," Mr. & Mrs. Len Carey's Doberman pinscher, Ch. Rancho Dobe's Storm (see cut opposite), defends the best-in-show title which he won last year in the annual Westminster Kennel Club competition at Madison Square Garden. The judge who last year picked Storm over the defending champion boxer, Bang Away of Sirrah Crest, called him "the greatest Doberman I've ever seen."

Also pictured on the following page are other 1952 bests-of-breed, most of whom will defend their blue-ribbon titles during the two-day Westminster show. Pointing eagerly toward this year's best-in-show award is the wire-haired fox terrier, four-year-old Ch. Wyretex Wyns Traveller of Trucote, owned by Mrs. Leonard Smit. Last May it beat the Doberman and won the nation's No. 2 classic, the Morris & Essex Show at Madison, NJ. Other breed champions: Pekingese Ch. Tai Chuo Sun of Dah Wong, owned by Sara F. Hodges and Aimee Ferret; Laura Franklin Delano's long-haired dachshund, Ch. Tytucker of Gypsy Barn; Mr. & Mrs. Steven G. Gillich's chowchow, Ch. Owhyo Wag-Gee (winner of 130 best-of-breed blue ribbons in four years); J. Stuart Walton's Ch. Lyn Mar's Clown (best basset hound at the Westminster show for the past three years).

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